RD: Stasis Leak
Overview Lister finds a time warp to the past and attempts to save Kochanski, while Rimmer tries in vain to save himself. Summary While going through Kochanski's personal things, Lister finds a photograph of the two of them getting married. Remembering something from the past, he reads Rimmer's diary and finds an entry where Rimmer thought he saw his own head pop up through the table and say that he came from the future to save his (Rimmer's) life which Rimmer himself (in the diary entry) took to be an hallucination. Following directions from the diary, the gang head down to floor 16 and find a hidden stasis leak which transports them back to the past, a little while before the crew all died. Because they can't bring anybody back to their time, Lister and Rimmer fight over who they should convince to go into the other stasis booth (Lister himself being sent into the other). Lister wants to save Kochanski and Rimmer obviously wants himself. While Rimmer goes back to convince himself, Lister and Cat find Kochanski at a hotel, but she is already married. Kochanski invites them in and Lister discovers... Himself! A future version from 5 years in the future who has found another way to go back in time. Rimmer attempts to convince himself to go into stasis, but his former self repeats acts the same as he did and believes it to be nothing more than a hallucination, ending up attacking Captain Hollister. The present Lister and Cat return tho their past quarters to collect the present Rimmer and meet up with their future selves. Overwhelmed by the arrival of these duplicates, the past Rimmer snaps and yells for them to go away. Notes *Despite setting up a follow-on storyline for a future series, the idea of Lister in five years marrying Kochanski was not mentioned again. Coincidentally, Lister and the Red Dwarf crew would have access to time-travel technology just prior to the five-year limit after finding the Time Drive in Series Six' Out of Time, making it possible for him to have gone back and married Kochanski. Although this may have been changed due to a time alteration (Timeslides) and a couple of major paradoxes (The Inquisitor, Out of Time). Certainly by the time Kochanski becomes a crewmember in Series VII there is no reference to them having been married. *The episode strongly implies that, as Kochanski is fully aware of the Cat and the hologram Rimmer, that in all likelihood she did not die in the Red Dwarf radiation leak since it's unlikely she would have allowed herself to die. (This would not explain why Holly identifies one of piles of ashes as being her in RD:The End, however, though it's possible he was asked to identify any old pile of ashes as her's.) It also means that Kochanski was already married to Lister when she and "young" Lister exchanged their final words prior to his being sentenced to go into stasis. *The events on the old Red Dwarf take place approximately three weeks before the radiation leak. Since no reference is made to Frankenstein, this suggests Lister obtained her after the "mushrooms" incident. *In the original version of this episode, during Holly's opening spiel he says "we saw a moon shaped exactly like Felicity Kendall's bottom". In the Remastered version it is changed to "Marilyn Monroe's bottom". *In "Back to Earth", Craig Charles reacted to Lister in the same way that Rimmer reacted to his future hologramatic self, both thought it was a narcotic flashback, with Rimmer it was Titan Mushrooms, with Craig Charles it was Crack Cocaine. *Rimmer says he's been dead for 3 years at this point, indicating 3 years has passed since the events of "The End", and a year after the events of RD: Kryten in which its indicated 2 years had passed. *We learn that Red Dwarf has more than 2,000 decks, and it takes long enough for a lift to descend to Level 16 that it's treated similar to an airline flight, with an in-service meal, a showing of Gone With the Wind, and cyanide pills to take if the lift fails, which will result in certain death. Having so many levels makes it impractical for the ship to have only 169 crewmembers (per earlier episodes); later, the crew count will be retconned and increased tenfold. Goofs *When Rimmer first comes out of the table and appears to his past self, he says "There, that wasn't too bad was it?" The second time he comes out of the table, he doesn't, even though the rest of the conversation is the same. Noteworthy Dialogue *'Xpress Lift lady:' Welcome to Xpress Lifts, descent to floor sixteen. You will be going down two thousand, five hundred and sixty-seven floors and, for a small extra charge, you can enjoy the in-lift movie "Gone With the Wind." If you look to your right and to your left, you will notice there are no exits. In the highly unlikely event of the lift having to make a crash-landing, death is certain. Under your seats you will find a cassette for recording your last will and testament, and from above your head a bag will drop containing sedatives and cyanide capsules. *'Holly:' I'm the closest thing you can get to infullable. Lister: Infallible. Holly: (nodding) Exactly. *'Lister:' Why do women always leave me for total smegheads? Why do they dump me for men who wear turtleneck sweaters and smoke a pipe? I mean, natural yoghurt eaters! Reliable, sensible, dependable, and lots of other words that end in "ible".I bet he's obsessed with house-prices, and spends half his life in antique fairs looking for bargains and drinking wine. It's never beer is it, its always wine! "What do you want on your cornflakes, darling?" "Oh, I'll have some wine, please!" Smeg! Cat: You can tell all that just from a photograph? '' *'Holly:' ''I was in love once. A Sinclair ZX81. They said no Holly, she's not for you. She's cheap, she's stupid and she wouldn't load. Well not for me anyway.' 'I'm saying, Dave, is that it's better to have loved and to have lost, than to have listened to an album by Olivia Newton-John. Cat: Why's that? Holly: Anything's better than listening to an album by Olivia Newton-John' '.'' *'Past Rimmer:' I know what you are. '''Rimmer:' You do? Past Rimmer: You're a mushroom aren't you. Rimmer: What? Background Information *The scenes in the Ganymede Holiday Inn were filmed at the real-life Midland Holiday Inn, with actual hotel guests shown in the foyer, and the confrontation scene being filmed in the real Room 008. *Before the final scene was filmed, Clare Grogan was accidentally told she had finished her scenes and left the studio, so the Kochanski who walks in with the future Lister is actually Dona DiStefano, an Assistant Floor Manager and Clare's lines were excised from the final shooting. References Other articles of things featured in this particular episode Category:Episodes Category:Episodes Category:Series II Episodes